My favorite pu erh recipe is actually one of the best homeopathic treatments for blood sugar, blood pressure and blood related diseases. It utilizes the properties of cinnamon and pu erh.

I personally have a nice selection of pu erh and switch from green and black pu erh. But my favorite pu erh yet is the Mini Toucha’s offered at Park Hill Pantry in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Cinnamon Pu erh Recipe

• 1 teaspoon of Pu erh Tea (preferably black)
• 1/4 teaspoon of chopped Vietnamese Cinnamon (4% oil) (can also be found at Park Hill Pantry)

Make like you would any loose leaf black tea. Boil water, steep for 5 full mins, strain and enjoy! I sometimes make 2 16oz and drink one cup hot, then take the 8 ounce bottle and chill it in the fridge for later. This is an excellent body cooling recipe for those who get overheated easily.

What is Cinnamon?

Cinnamon is considered the oldest known spices in the world. It is a small tree grown in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Egypt. The bark is dried and rolled into cinnamon sticks, it is also either chopped or ground into a powder. Cinnamon has a sweet hot flavor that is used a lot in tea, cooking and aromatherapy. Latin names for cinnamon: Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Cinnamomum cassia. It is a great source of manganese, fiber, iron, and calcium. Cinnamon has antiviral properties and benefits for cancer patients as well.

Cinnamon and it’s health benefits for diabetics

Cinnamon has a wonderful way of significantly reducing blood sugar levels in diabetics just by adding a cinnamon stick to a cup of tea once a day. The homeopathic dosage of cinnamon is 1/2 a teaspoon a day split between 2 cups of tea. One cup in the morning and one cup mid-afternoon. Studies have shown that the active water-soluble polyphenol compound called MHCP is what causes cinnamon to mimic insulin. A study in the 2003 in the journal Diabetes Care showed that just 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon a day reduced fasting blood glucose by 18 to 29%, triglycerides by 23 to 30%, LDL cholesterol by 7 to 27%, and total cholesterol by 12 to 26%. This is old news to Ayurveda, for centuries cinnamon has been used for diabetes, colds, indigestion, and recommended for people with the kapha dosha.

Other health benefits of cinnamon

In a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Maryland, cinnamon has been found to reduced the proliferation of leukemia and lymphoma cancer cells. Other studies show the same 1/2 teaspoon a day can help with arthritis pain, stop medication-resistant yeast infections, fights the E. coli bacteria, helps with nausea, diarrhea, and painful menstrual periods, improves energy, vitality, and circulation and simply makes everything taste better!

So don’t leave out the cinnamon stick! It not only helps balance blood sugars, it makes tea taste absolutely wonderful!

Americans have just recently been introduced to Pu erh Tea within recent years, however Pu erh has been around for thousands of years. Pu erh tea has been documented in many ancient Chinese scripts and books as a medicinal tea used for prevention of heart disease and cancer, removal of toxins and fatty grease after a heavy meal, diabetic control, aiding digestion and weight loss, blood circulation, improving eyesight, battle the effects of alcohol intoxication and even anti-aging.

There are two main categories of Pu erh, dark and green, however, we have recently seen white pu erh hitting the market by a few serious tea shops, however, the white pu erh is basically a white/green mix. Dark Pu erh is a lot like black tea and oolong, yet falls into a category of its own. The differences in the way the tea is processed creates a type of tea unlike all others. Pu erh leaves are generally picked all year long instead of seasonal, however you can find seasonally picked pu erhs being marketed as well. Pu erh production generally involves steaming the leaves, pressing the leaves and aging the leaves. The leaves natural bacterium creates ferments and ages the tea like a wine. This fermentation makes pu erh unique in the spectrum of teas. The fermentation gives the tea a “earthy” aroma, kind of like goats milk or “farm-like”. This aroma and taste usually turns you away the first couple of cups if you are sensitive to such aromas. However, it is quickly adapted and becomes a flavor that pu erh drinks crave and appreciate in a good cup of pu erh. Dark pu erh has a stronger aroma than green pu erh, green pu erhs are usually quite delicate.

Pu erh generally will not go bitter like most tea. You can boil it hard for 5 mins and get an espresso quality shot of concentrated pu erh tea as well without the hard bitterness. Pu erh is best sweetened with a little honey or cane sugar and tastes outstanding with a little cream. However, if you are detoxing, just add a little honey, or blend some of your favorite flavored tea with the pu erh to change the level of sweetness to be desired.

The fermentation allows the pu erh to age like a wine, it also gives the tea a large amount of chi. Pu erh is known as the “living tea” due to the live microbes that continue to age the tea over many years. Some say these living microbes are responsible for the health benefits of pu erh. They jump start metabolism, they detox and flush the digestive track as well as do many other wonderful things to aid our well being.

Pu erh is regarded as a member of tea’s elite royalty. Like a fine wine, each batch has its own unique flavor and characteristics. A pu erh drinker could adore one batch and detest another according to the batches fine profile characteristics.

Pu erh can be found in many forms and shapes. Generally, pu erh is compressed into “touchas” or “bowls”. Mini touchas are small pot sized bowls, while cakes are large disks, bricks, bowls, melons and many other creative shapes. Pu erh can be found stuffed into aged tangerines or roasted bamboo, as well as, simple loose leaf.

Pu erh… the living tea… full of chi!

Welcome to the first post on the Chi of Tea blog. I am going to get strait to the point… You are what you drink. The body is 55-60% water in the average adult and the quality of our fluid intake directly effects our health in a profound way. The average human body can survive for nearly 30-40 days without food, however can only survive without water for only an average of 3-4 days. Water is the bodies fuel, it our gas, our oil our survival depends on it.

The average American is dehydrated. We consume large amounts of water, there is no doubt about it, however a large amount of this water is toxic and already considered waist before the body can utilize it. It is full of poison and toxic chemicals, artificial flavors, carbonation, sodium and more. If you watered your plants with the same fluids you drink each day, they would die within a few days. The human body is basically a complex plant… shall we say… life form. And life can not survive on soda pop and chemically tainted water, PERIOD.

In order for the human body to be optimum, it needs Chi. Chi is the energy transferred from the nutrients in what we consume. Chi can also be generated through meditation, yoga and spiritual practice. However, we need that physical Chi transfer to maintain the human body. And 99% of the bodies Chi comes from diet. It’s a secret trade of energy that has been mother natures way since day one.

However, this blog is not really going to focus on diet, nor any of the worries of water pollution, poisonous beverages and the toxic slow death of the human race due to our beverage of choice… but will focus on the Chi of tea through a magical experimental journey of infusing teas and herbs as well as the benefits of such experimentation and reflection.

So grab your favorite cup of tea, your meditation pillow and share the Chi with me!